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Three of the six babies that found themselves cold and shivering on our driveway earlier this week. Thankfully the mother returned to the warm basket we had carefully placed under the porch. Now everyday, we see and hear these adorable squirrels running around the garden. Here they are nestled up in their rooftop home.
Forest Walk, pen on paper, 2023.
Fast-Forward
Everything
is on fast-forward now.
Remember cassette tapes?
That whirring sound—
fast-forward—
squeaky voices stretched by time
As trying to catch up to themselves.
That’s what it feels like.
Now.
All of it—
sped up.
Flashing frames in black-and-white,
in color,
all at once.
Like a slideshow
projected across a river.
Life, flickering
on water.
I step outside.
The porch beneath me.
Sky breathing overhead.
Water, still flowing.
Birds, squirrels—
chattering like they always do.
Like nothing’s changed.
But I have.
Have you?
Something shifted.
Quietly.
Like the soft click
before a tape ends
and rewinds.
This is surrender.
Not defeat—
but release.
My heart is wide—
open.
Not cracked,
not broken—
but ready.
Because now—
there are no more seconds.
No more minutes.
No more “maybe laters”
or “someday whens.”
There’s just this.
This moment.
This truth.
This self.
No more hiding
from who we are.
No more shrinking
from what we’re here to do.
No more silence
where our voice should be.
We are needed.
Not someday.
Now.
Everything is moving.
Rushing.
Spinning.
Cracking open.
Unearthing.
Becoming.
Surrender.
Together, pencil, 2023.
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Workshops and Collaborations
The Art of Bookmaking closed out with a sharing of book creations. A gift to be with so many creative souls these past several weeks.
Gifted again the opportunity to work with the Maine Audobon and fifth graders from the Mary Snow School to create a Maine inspired mural. The students learned about native plants, birds and the monarch butterfly life cycle, interpreting it all into a stunning mural.
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I hope you can join me on June 28th for an outdoor watercolor workshop at Fields Pond (Maine Audobon). Visit the link to learn more and register.
Thank you for continuing to push creativity out and into the world in the many ways that you do. So much healing happening.
In Love, Light and Gratitude,
The books, the poem, the squirrels aligned in love.
Charlene, such a wide variety of stunning works, and diverse techniques here, too. I'm curious about the methods used to create the image of the crow sitting on a limb (in the right side of the photo with several books).